


There Is a Light in the Dark

by Legende



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Plot Twists, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-27 14:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12083409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legende/pseuds/Legende
Summary: Magnus moves into his new apartment, and is determined to learn more about his mystical - but overly mesmerizing - neighbor living on the other side of the street.





	1. Prologue

”I’m happy you could come on such a short notice, Mr. Bane,” Mr. Fell stated as he unlocked the big black double door in front of him, leading into the apartment, he was about to show his potential buyer. “Even though it’s quite past business hour already.”

“That’s quite alright,” Magnus answered and more or less fidgeted with his hands in anticipation, as he, with a polite gesture from his realtor, stepped into the rooftop apartment.

It was a very elegant two floors apartment, mainly consisting of exposed red bricks and a polished concrete floor. There was something very rustic over it, and Magnus really liked the look of it, as he thought it would fit well with his rather colorful bohemian interior.

When you first entered the apartment, you stepped into a small foyer, leading further into some sort of room that Magnus most of all felt like classifying as a formal wardrobe area, with huge build-in mahogany closets on each side – perfect for all his coats, shoes and miscellaneous accessories, such as scarves and whatnot.

From the wardrobe, you could then continue into the living room, which main feature appeared to be the big rustic metal windows that was covering almost the entire outer wall. Sadly, Magnus wasn’t actually able to tell how much sunlight there would get through the windows, seeing how it was already late enough for it to have turned dark outside. Centered in between the windows though, there was a double door, with the same design, leading out to a big balcony, there was as long as the entire living room.

Leading on from the living room, to the right you could walk into what Magnus assumed was the master bedroom. Magnus estimated that it was big enough to fit both a king-sized bed, a love seat area, and a rather large vanity table without the room would get to appear cramped. Other than that, the room also had a walk-in closet and a big on-suite with a bathtub attached to it.

In the meantime, if you went to the left in the living room, you would pass by a metal spiral staircase, leading up to the second floor, which consisted of a rather big landing, two guestrooms with each their bathroom, an office with its own library – and not to forget mentioning the big rooftop courtyard.

Now, if you went down the spiral staircase again, and continued to your left, you would enter a dining area, continuously leading into an almost over-the-top kitchen. It had the same rustic features as the rest of the apartment; the cabinets were made of the same mahogany wood as the rest of the wood elements in the apartment, and the countertop consisted of a white marble. There was a giant island in the middle of the kitchen, where you were able to fit about four bar stools, Magnus reckoned.

From the kitchen, you could enter a utility room with a washer and dryer. The room was continuous and in the other end, there was another door leading back out to the foyer. There was also a door leading into a small guest bathroom, as well as a door leading out to a fire escape.

“I’m convinced that this apartment is the one for you, Mr. Bane, which is why I asked you to come straight away, after having spoken to the seller,” the realtor explained, as he had finished showing the entire apartment. “It isn’t even on the market yet, but it will most likely be gone in no time.” 

Magnus only hummed slightly as a response to that statement, as he thoughtfully returned to the living room. He really loved this apartment and he was definitely getting tired of searching for a new place to live. He was very picky and this was probably the 15th apartment he had seen so far. Maybe. He had lost count to be honest.

“I must say, Mr. Fell, this is definitely the best apartment you have shown me so far. But, there is one thing that kind of bothered me,” Magnus stated and gracefully walked over to the huge double glass doors leading out to the balcony. He magnificently opened the doors with both hands, breathing in the fresh Brooklyn air, before finally stepping outside.

Technically, the view from the balcony was quite good, seeing how the building the apartment was located in, appeared to be just slightly taller than most of the surrounding buildings. Other than that, if you turned your head just a tiny bit to the left, you had an almost clear view of Brooklyn Bridge.

However, Magnus was, as mentioned earlier, picky.                  

He stepped over to the edge of the balcony, leaning his elbows on the concrete railing, as he thoughtfully stared at the building on the opposite side of the street. It just appeared to be so uncomfortable close, and Magnus occasionally appreciated his much-needed moments of privacy.

On the contrary, the person living in the apartment, currently across from him, seemed to have little to no understanding of the word privacy. The apartment was fully exposed to the outside world, and despite it had already turned dark, there was no curtains covering the any of the windows, even though, as far as Magnus could see from where he was standing, the said windows actually had blinds hanging above them. If that wasn’t enough in itself, pretty much all the lights in the apartment were turned on as well, giving Magnus a pretty clear view straight into the soul of the poor apartment.

“I don’t really like how close that building is. I can see straight into that apartment right there,” Magnus finally shared his concern with the realtor standing behind him, as he pointed a ring-covered finger towards the said apartment – and as if to prove his point, Magnus watched as a man stepped into his view. He dropped his pointing finger then, kind of just watching the other man; he was tall and slender, but obviously well built, based on his slightly visible abs.

“This is New York City; of course the buildings are a bit cramped together, you can’t really avoid that.”

He wasn’t wearing anything else than a pair of gray sweatpants – thanks god, Magnus silently thought to himself – and he had a white towel wrapped around the back of his neck. His hair was black and moist, from the shower he had obviously just taken, and his eyes were dreamingly ocean blue- Okay no, that much Magnus actually couldn’t tell from where he was standing, but he was allowed to dream, right? No matter what, there was no doubt about the man being almost scarily mesmerizing.

Magnus finally snapped out of it, as the man scratched the top of his head with the towel, and slowly turned to face his own windows, forcing Magnus to turn around elegantly, before he was caught in the act of staring.

“Mr. Bane, are you listening?”

He placed his lower back against the railing and thoughtfully brought his left hand up to the edge of his mouth, resting it there for a bit, before tossing his eyes towards Mr. Fell, kind of sending him a tangled look. “I’m so sorry, did you say anything?”

Mr. Fell cleared his throat a bit, before repeating himself. “I said, this is New York City, so you have to expect the buildings to be cramped together.”

“Ah yeah,” Magnus answered and removed his hand from his hand, while straightening his back. He couldn’t help wondering if the gorgeous man in the opposite apartment was watching them right now, but he also didn’t have the nerves to check, so instead of he just nonchalantly started to stroll back inside again.

“You’re right,” Magnus finally concluded and secretly beamed; how bad could this new private-wrecking neighbor be? “So where do I sign?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone,  
> This is my first Malec fanfic, and the first fanfic I have written in quite some years. But nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this little introduction to the story and are looking forward to whatever there is to come!


	2. Moving- and Mailboxes

It has been a busy first month of the year for Magnus.

He got the keys to his new apartment the 1st of January and even though he really liked the idea about a new year; a new beginning, it had been quite hectic having to take care of his fulltime job as a Fashion Consultant, while also having to concentrate about his irregular job as a model now and then, while _also_ having to worry about getting all his stuff packed into boxes and moved to his new apartment, just so he could unpack everything again and get his place furnished.

The entire process had just been too much for him. One thing was to move the big furniture he wanted to keep, and to shop for new ones, which he could very conveniently get delivered at his new address. But then there was all the other loose things, that had been an absolute pain to pack and that ended up in way too many boxes, which took up way to much space in his apartment.

Not to mention it had basically been mission impossible to unpack everything and get it all sorted out and put in place, without having to trip over a moving box all the time – it had just been a constant loop of having to move things around to be able to put them in place between all the boxes.

But now – Magnus placed a clear cylinder vase with a bouquet of colorful and graceful flowers on the middle of his coffee table – he was finally done, and he could finally get to enjoy his new apartment in a whole without having to worry about tripping over anymore boxes.

He threw himself onto his couch, letting out a delightful sigh, as he looked at the bouquet of flowers. It had been a present from his realtor, which he had got delivered earlier that day, together with a high-end box of chocolate, an expensive bottle of champagne and a small card that might as well have said something along: Congrats with your new apartment and thank you for the profit!

Magnus eyed the flowers absentmindedly, while wondering if his choice of not hosting any housewarming party had been the right one. Normally he would love a good reason for throwing a party and he knew for sure that his friends would love it as well. But moving had just turned out to be so exhausting and just the thought about having to deal with his friends made him want to never leave his apartment again.

His friends were jerks, to be honest; they were too self-centered for their own selves and too obsessed about money and materialistic things. Not that Magnus himself didn’t enjoy living a nice life with nice things, like his new rooftop apartment or his Maserati Levante. But Magnus knew it was just things, that they could be replaced, and that they couldn’t bring your happiness; he knew there was more to life than that.

Magnus got up from the couch and went to pour himself a drink, quickly checking his phone to see what time it was – a quarter to six, so it should be a decent time to get a drink. Besides he felt like he had deserved it after all the hard work he had been through while moving.  He then went over to turn on the radio – drink still in his hand - finding some nice and relaxing music, before continuing out on to his balcony; shivering a bit as the cold February air hit him.                                                                     

He somewhat sighed as he looked at the apartment building in front of him. Magnus had come to learn that there was something rather special about his new neighbor. Very much unlike the day he first saw the apartment for the first time, the black blinds were now covering up all the windows of the apartment on the other side of the street.

But it wasn’t anything unusual, Magnus had come to realize; the windows was always covered by the blinds at day, not allowing as much as a single sunray through. But in the evenings, when the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, the blinds would be gone and Magnus would be able to see straight through the windows again; watching his neighbor walking around and preparing food.

Not that it was anything he did regularly, of course – he was _not_ a stalker! But when he would be standing on his balcony, which he almost did every evening, his eyes couldn’t help taking a peak towards the other apartment once in a while, and something they would rest there, just absentmindedly watching the other’s movements throughout the apartment.

Magnus kind of hated it. He didn’t even know his neighbor, yet something drew him towards him and made him want to get to know him.

They had managed to greet each other shortly – it had been awkward.

Magnus had stepped out on to his balcony one evening, and the black-haired man had been standing outside on the fire escape, which appeared to be the opposite apartment building’s answer to a balcony. The building wasn’t as fancy as the one Magnus was living in. It was constructed out of red bricks and it looked a bit outdated, but nevertheless decent – and from what Magnus could tell from the view from his balcony, the inside of the building did look quite pleasant. His neighbor definitely didn’t seem to live a bad life.  

_Anyway, back to the story._

The guy had been standing on the fire escape when Magnus stepped out on to his balcony one evening, and since Magnus automatically looked in that direction, they managed to get eye contact for a split second. It had kind of startled Magnus for a moment, as if he hadn’t expected seeing the other standing there.

They had stared at each other for a few seconds, before the guy eventually smiled a bit and lifted his hand in a greeting. Magnus had copied his greeting and he even let out a small “hi,” which probably no one had been able to hear, even if they had been standing right beside him.

After that, Magnus had just decided to go back inside again, because he felt kind of awkward just standing there on each their balcony on each their side of the road.                                                                                                           

That is exactly the reason he had been skeptical about the other building being where it was; he didn’t like the thought about having to just mind his own business, while random people could keep an eye on him and watch his every move, without him being able to do anything about it, and just having to ignore it and pretend like nothing.

But something was different this time, because he was not really interested in minding his own business; he actually wanted to get to learn the other person living on the opposite side of the street.

But how?

Was he just supposed to waltz straight over there and knock onto the other’s apartment door, being like: ‘Hi, you don’t know me, but I live on the other side of the street. I’m Magnus, nice to meet you’. 

No, that would be too weird, wouldn’t it?

Magnus quickly swallowed the rest of his drink in one go, as he turned around on his heels and purposefully walked inside. He placed the empty glass on the coffee table and continued his walk out to the foyer, where he grabbed a coat and a fashionable scarf and quickly put them on together with a pair of shoes. Then he opened his front door and walked out into the hallway, quickly locking the door, before heading straight towards the elevator.

The elevator ride down went fast and before Magnus knew of it, he found himself standing on the street out in front of his building.

He had no sane clue about what he was doing and it had been quite a rushed decision, as he walked over the road and towards the red brick building on the other side. There was no way that he was going to knock onto the said neighbor’s door, but he was still curious nonetheless, and at least he wanted to know his name.

As if he was scared of being caught doing something he wasn’t allowed to do, he nervously looked around to make sure the coast was clear, before stepping up to the front door of the building, opening it and stepping inside to take a look on all the mailboxes covering the one side.  

There was nothing wrong with this, right? All he was doing was looking at a bunch of mailboxes. So why did he feel like he was on the line to stalk someone?

His eyes scanned over all the names and numbers on the mailboxes, as he in his mind tried to visualize which floor his neighbor was actually living on. Magnus lived on the 9th floor, so technically it would make sense if his neighbor did as well, but this building had quite a tall foundation with at least 10 steps up to the front door – it was very typical Brooklyn, Magnus thought – and the building did seem a bit shorter than his own, so many the other was actually living on the 8th floor? 

It wasn’t really that hard of a task and Magnus was probably overthinking it way too much; he knew the neighbor he had in mind was living on the upper floor, so of course all he had to do, was to look at the mailboxes with the highest floor number. 

It turned out that only two people was living on the top floor. One of them were a girl name, so Magnus could quickly remove her from his way to over-complicated equation.

Therefore, the only mailbox, and the only name left was…

“Alexander G. Lightwood,” Magnus let the name rest on his tongue for a bit, and soon after he was wondering if he had actually just said the name out aloud or if he had only thought it in his mind.

His thought was cut short and he jumped in surprise as the door to the outside suddenly opened and a girl walked in.

Magnus looked at her and she threw him a peculiar glance before smiling at him. Magnus couldn’t help but notice that she kind of reminded him of… _Alexander_. He still had to get used to that name. She had some of the same facial features, as far as Magnus could tell, and she had the same kind of black hair – though this was long and kind of curly in the ends.

“Hi,” she greeted him and Magnus suddenly felt like he was somewhere he didn’t belong. “Are you new here?”

“I guess you could say so,” Magnus answered very nonchalantly, as he was trying to calm his nerves and convince himself that he wasn’t doing anything wrong – and besides, it wasn’t like he was lying or anything; he was a new resident… on the street at least. That counted for something, right?

“Nice to meet you,” the girl kept going and stepped closer to him, as she reached out her hand to greet him. “My name is Isabelle.”

“I’m Magnus, it is very pleasant to meet you Isabelle. Now, not to be rude, but I really have to get going,” Magnus tried not to rush neither his words nor his movement, as he quickly shook the girl’s hand, before – as casually as possible, of course – storming out of the apartment building and away from the girl.

Magnus wouldn’t usually classify himself as the awkward type - though a lot of the situations he had ended up in lately would probably beg to differ – but he couldn’t help finding that moment particular awkward.

He took a deep breathe to calm himself down, and straightened his clothes a bit before continuing down the street. He felt the need for a walk after that very unrealistic experience. What the hell had he even been thinking?

Yet he couldn’t help smiling as he thought about the new knowledge he had managed to get.

_Alexander Lightwood._

-

It ended up being quite late before Magnus returned to the street again.

He had ended up walking down to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and walking along almost all of the park piers. He just loved walking down there near the water front with a clear view to Manhattan; there was something so satisfying about being able to look at the high-rises on the opposite side of the bay. It strangely enough gave him a feeling of accomplishment – especially at that time of the day, where he could watch the sun setting in the horizon of all the buildings.

Then he had decided to eat dinner at a small but lovely restaurant, and after that he had continued to a coffee shop, where he treated himself with a hot cup of coffee, while answering some work mails on his phone. Moving had sadly resulted in him being behind on quite a few things, and a lot of his mails were long overdue, so he had quite some catching up to do.

So now that he was finally back, the time had somehow managed to pass 10PM – he had been gone for more than 4 hours.

“Hey!” a voice suddenly sounded from the other side of the street, as Magnus was about to walk up to the front door of his apartment building.

Magnus stopped in his track and turned around to see where the voice was coming from, and if it had even been directed to him. He almost got his breathe taken away as he realized who was crossing the street and getting closer to him with every step he took.

“Hey there,” Magnus finally greeted, slightly astonished as Alexander stopped in front of him. Magnus took a second to study him as good as he could, in the somewhat bad lightning of darn the street light.

He was even more beautiful up close; his skin was smooth and pale, his eyes were big but overwhelming soothing – not to sound cheesy at all, but Magnus felt like his soul smelted a bit when looking into them – and his black hair was styled courteously, with a few strands falling into his forehead. He was wearing all black – black shoes, black jeans, black leather jacket, and Magnus could almost imagine that whatever he was wearing under the jacket would also be black, just to suit his outfit.

“Um, you’re the guy living opposite me, right?” Alexander questioned, though it sounded more like an statement than an actual question.

Magnus tried to hide a satisfying, yet nervous smile. The other knew who he was and it really flattered Magnus, but why were they standing in front of each other right now? Had Alexander seen Magnus watching him, and was now going to confront him about it? Could that be it?

“How did you know?” Magnus ended up responding flatly. 

“Um, we greeted each other the other day,” Alexander concluded and awkwardly scratched himself behind his head, while switching the weights on his feet a bit.

“Oh right, that was you!” as Magnus stated that, he couldn’t help feeling like a jerk, and he immediately regretted it  – the man standing in front of him was obviously nervous. He cursed himself under his breath, before clearing his throat.

“Yeah, that was me…” Alexander’s words trailed off for a bit, before he smiled and reached out his hand. “Um, I’m Alec – Alec Lightwood.”

“Short for Alexander, am I right?” Magnus ‘guessed’ and shook the other’s hand, taking a moment to appreciate how rough - but yet somehow soft – his hand was, before eventually letting go of it again.

“Oh, how _did_ you know?” This time it was Alexander’s – or Alec’s – time to question Magnus, and it was clear that he liked how the situation had turned to his advantage, as it was now Magnus’ turn to explain himself.

“Um, isn’t it an obvious abbreviation?” Magnus questioned, a bit unsure about what to say to his defend.

“No, I don’t feel like it is,” the other replied jokingly and shook his head. “It would have been obviously if I said my name was Alex, but that wasn’t the case.”

“Oh, lucky guess then, I guess?” Magnus’ thought trailed off for a second, before he realized he hadn’t even greeted himself to the gorgeous man in front of him. “I’m Magnus Bane by the way, nice to mean you Alexander.”

“Right,” Alec responded and grinned at him as he nodded conformingly, “The High Warlock of Brooklyn, right?”

Magnus felt his body freeze as he specified that, yet he could basically feel his cheeks heat up. The High Warlock of Brooklyn was a name he had gotten during a photoshoot/interview with Vogue the previous year. They had been running with a supernatural/fantasy theme at the time, hence the ridiculous name – which Magnus in all secret actually liked – but nevertheless it had been for a LGBT issue in the magazine, which is why it happily surprised Magnus that Alec had actually heard about it.  

“It is okay,” Alec insured, as if he could feel his sudden hesitation. “I was just wondering.”

“Yes indeed,” Magnus finally admitted and smiled at him. “That’s me. Now is it my turn again to ask you, how you know that?”

“Yeah sure, you can ask me that,” Alec replied, obviously having an answer up his sleeves. He stepped a bit closer to Magnus and leaned in a bit, as if he was about to tell a big secret no one else was allowed to hear – he was clearly just joking and making a big deal out of it though. “I read the article. Well, I mean, I’m usually not that much into Vogue but my sister Isabelle showed it to me, because she thought I might be interested in it.”

Magnus felt his eyes widened. Partly because he was surprised and partly because Alec was standing close enough for Magnus to feel his breathe on his skin as he spoke. He did all he could muster not to shiver. Though if he did, maybe Alec would think it was just because of the cold.

His sister thought he might have been interested in a LGBT issue with Magnus in it, did that mean that- Wait, did he say his sister’s name was Isabelle? The girl in Alec’s hallway that had reminded Magnus of Alec had presented herself as Isabelle.

“Was your sister here earlier today?” Magnus suddenly blurted before he could stop himself.

Alec took a step back and threw him a confused look, tilting his head a bit. “Yeah, in matter of fact she was. Did you meet her, perhaps? She likes to talk to people.”

Magnus took a moment to consider his answer. Should he deny meeting her? But then if he was to meet her later for some odd reason - you never know, you are allowed to hope – he would get an issue explaining himself. And if Isabelle had shown her brother the article, maybe she had recognized Magnus in the hallway? And if she had, wouldn’t she have told Alec about it? But then Alec would know that Magnus had been in his hallway this afternoon. Though there also was the chance that Isabelle hadn’t recognized him of course. But why would she have had greeted him then, as if she had actually been living in the building herself?

“Yeah, I believe I greeted her shortly,” Magnus finally decided to answer, not wanting to go further into details about how their meeting happened.

Alec grinned at his reaction and Magnus instantly felt like he had screwed up.

He knew, didn’t he? There was no way he couldn’t have known.    

“So um…” Magnus paused for a second, thinking about what he was about to say. “Are you headed anywhere or…? Would you maybe like to go somewhere less cold and get a drink or something and get to know each other a bit better?”

“Oh um, I…” Alec stumbled over his own words and Magnus wasn’t sure if he should find it adorable or worrisome. “Actually right now is not a good time, I’m on my way to work, but…”

“Oh you work at night?” Magnus interrupted before Alec could finish his sentence. It wasn’t even on purpose, he just felt nervous all of a sudden and Alec’s rejection didn’t really help on it, even though the poor guy didn’t even get to defend himself.

But then again, it did make sense that Alec would be working in the night time, seeing how his blinds was always covering his windows in the day time. That would explain a whole lot.

“Yes, I do, it just suits my way of living the best,” Alec answered. “But as I was about to say, if the offer still counts, maybe you could give me your phone number and I could try and text you a time where I’m not hold back with work.”

Magnus took a second to wonder what was up with Alec’s wording, when he said that his job at night is what suits his way of living the best, but his latter request quickly over rumbled the thought.

 _Alexander_ was asking for his number so that they could meet up another time. The same Alexander that Magnus had found himself kind of obsessing over for the last month, and the same Alexander that Magnus could see in his apartment from his balcony. This day had taken a serious turn in a direction Magnus had not dared to dream about. 

“Yeah sure, I would love that!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter is here.  
> I hope the beginning wasn't too long and/or boring-  
> The next chapters will definitely get more interesting, with a lot more interactions!


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